The grade of a climbing route is based on the difficulty of the crux. That means the rest of the route can be considerably easier. In addition a route may comprise several cruces. There are also routes, however, that have a very consistent level of difficulty with no sections that stand out as harder than the rest.

In planning a route it is important to know how far it is before the crux is reached, because cruces, also called cruxes,[2] can only be overcome with sufficient reserves of strength.[3]